The Reinheitsgebot (literally "purity order"), sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English, is a regulation that originated in the city of Ingolstadt in the duchy of Bavaria on April 23, 1516, although first put forward in 1487,[1] concerning standards for the sale and composition of beer. Ingolstadt (ˈɪŋgɔlˌʃtat Austro-Bavarian: Inglstådt) is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 Events 215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed Alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea Before its official repeal in 1987, it was the oldest food quality regulation in the world. [2] The vast majority of German breweries continue to comply with this regulation and use this in their marketing approach.
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The text
In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops. Water is a common Chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of Life. Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for The hop ( Humulus) is a small genus of Flowering plants native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The law also set the price of beer at 1-2 Pfennig per Maß. The Pfennig (abbreviation Pf) is an old German coin or note which existed from the 9th century until the introduction of the Euro The de Maß (mɑs and the Bavarian form of the female noun de Masse, i The Reinheitsgebot is no longer part of German law: it has been replaced by the Provisional German Beer Law (Vorläufiges Deutsches Biergesetz (Provisional German Beer-law of 1993)), which allows constituent components prohibited in the Reinheitsgebot, such as wheat malt and cane sugar, but which no longer allows unmalted barley. Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Sugarcane ( Saccharum) is a genus of 6 to 37 species (depending on taxonomic interpretation of tall perennial grasses (family Poaceae tribe Andropogoneae Malting is a process applied to Cereal grains in which the grains are made to Germinate by soaking in water and are then quickly halted from germinating further
Note that no yeast was mentioned in the original text. Yeasts are a growth form of eukaryotic Microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1500 Species currently described It was not until the 1800s that Louis Pasteur discovered the role of microorganisms in the process of fermentation; therefore, yeast was not known to be an ingredient of beer. Louis Pasteur (27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895 a French Chemist and Microbiologist, is best known for remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and Brewers generally took some sediment from the previous fermentation and added it to the next, the sediment generally containing the necessary organisms to perform fermentation. If none were available, they would set up a number of vats, relying on natural yeast to inoculate the brew.
Hops are added to beer to impart flavours but also act as a preservative, and their mention in the Reinheitsgebot meant to prevent inferior methods of preserving beer that had been used before the introduction of hops. A preservative is a natural or synthetic chemical that is added to products such as foods pharmaceuticals paints biological samples wood etc Medieval brewers had used many problematic ingredients to preserve beers, including, for example, soot and fly agaric mushrooms. Soot (ˈsʊt is a general term that refers to the black impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly Amanita is a poisonous and Psychoactive Basidiomycete Fungus, More commonly, other herbs had been used, such as stinging nettle. Urtica dioica, commonly called stinging nettle, is a Herbaceous perennial Flowering plant, native to Europe, Asia,
The penalty for making impure beer was also set in the Reinheitsgebot: a brewer using other ingredients for his beer could have questionable barrels confiscated with no compensation.
German breweries are very proud of the Reinheitsgebot, and many (even brewers of wheat beer[3]) claim to still abide by it. Wheat beer is a Beer that is brewed with a significant proportion of Wheat. This is purely for marketing purposes; all modern commercial brewers in Germany add cultured yeast to the brew, and some beers contain wheat. Neither yeast nor wheat are allowable ingredients under the 1516 law.
History
The Reinheitsgebot was introduced in part to prevent price competition with bakers for wheat and rye. Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Rye ( Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop The restriction of grains to barley was meant to ensure the availability of sufficient amounts of affordable bread, as the more valuable wheat and rye were reserved for use by bakers. Today many Bavarian beers are again brewed using wheat and are thus no longer compliant with the Reinheitsgebot.
The Reinheitsgebot formed the basis of legislation that spread slowly throughout Bavaria and Germany. Bavaria insisted on its application throughout Germany as a precondition of German unification in 1871, to prevent competition from beers brewed elsewhere with a wider range of ingredients. The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification Year 1871 ( MDCCCLXXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The move encountered strong resistance from brewers outside Bavaria. By restricting the allowable ingredients, it led to the extinction of many brewing traditions and local beer specialties, such as North German spiced beer and cherry beer, and led to the domination of the German beer market by pilsener style beers. Pilsner, sometimes pilsener or simply pils, is a Pale lager, developed in the 19th century in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia ( Only a few regional beer varieties, such as Düsseldorfer Altbier, survived its implementation. Düsseldorf (ˈdʏsəldɔɐf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Altbier (often abbreviated to Alt) is the name given to a form of German top-fermenting beer that originated in Westphalia and spread to parts of the Rhineland
Regulations similar to those of the Reinheitsgebot were incorporated into various guild regulations and local laws all over Germany, and in 1952, they were incorporated into the West German Biersteuergesetz (Beer Taxation Law) and vorläufiges Biergesetz (Provisional Beer Law). Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Many brewers objected to the law at the time, disagreeing more with the amount of the tax than the ingredient requirements. The law initially applied only to bottom-fermented ("lager") beers, but brewers of other types of beer soon accepted the law as well. Lager (storage camp bearing etc is the more popular of two main types of Beer; the other being Ale.
In May 1987, a European Court of Justice ruling led to the Reinheitsgebot being lifted, allowing ingredients beyond what is listed in the Biergesetz; this meant that anything allowed in other foods was thus also allowed in beer. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) This article refers to the European Union court not the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of Europe The Court of Justice The ingredient requirements have since been moved from the Biersteuergesetz into the regular food additives laws, though beer brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot receive special treatment as a protected, "traditional" food.
The vast majority of German breweries continue to comply with the Biergesetz, often claiming compliance with the Reinheitsgebot even when it is patently incorrect (for example, for wheat beers, which were prohibited by the Reinheitsgebot), using this compliance as a valuable marketing tool.
Until superseded by the change in EU law, the Reinheitsgebot was also enforced in Greece from the early 19th century due to a law by the first Greek king, Otto (originally a Bavarian prince) that had remained in effect. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Otto of Greece (Όθων Βασιλεύς της Ελλάδος Othon Vasileus tis Ellados) (1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867 was made the first modern king of Greece Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12
Criticism
The law still causes controversy. After German reunification in 1990 the Neuzeller Kloster Brewery, a former monastery brewery in the East German town of Neuzelle, Brandenburg, was warned to stop selling its traditional black beer, a product possibly older than the Reinheitsgebot itself, as it contained sugar, and thus could not be sold as "beer" under German food-labeling laws based on the Reinheitsgebot. German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung took place twice after 1945 first in 1957 the Saarland was permitted to join the Federal Republic of Germany Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) The Neuzelle Kloster Brewery ( Neuzeller Klosterbräu) is located in Neuzelle, Germany, and is best known for its Neuzeller "Anti-Aging-Bier" Neuzelle is a town in the Oder-Spree district Brandenburg, Germany, along the border with Poland, probably best known for its Neuzeller Brandenburg ( Lower Sorbian: Bramborska; Upper Sorbian: Braniborska) is one of the sixteen states of Germany. In the end, it was allowed to sell it under the name Schwarzer Abt ("Black Abbot" but not "beer") within Germany.
When it was in effect, the law drew criticism from foreign brewers as a form of protectionism (a trade restriction) that allowed West Germany to prohibit non-compliant imports, even beers from countries such as Belgium and the United Kingdom with their own long brewing traditions. For the protectionist Australian political party from the 1880s to 1909 see Protectionist Party A trade restriction is an artificial restriction on the trade of goods between two countries West Germany ( Inf German: Westdeutschland or West-Deutschland) was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany ( The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
Note
- ^ "Bavaria"; Bolt, Rodney; Globe Pequot Press; Connecticut; 2005; pg 37.
- ^ The Bavarian Purity Law: Interesting Thing of the Day
- ^ "Brewed in full accordance with the Bavarian 'Purity Law' of 1516" appears on the label of Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, a type of wheat Beer
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